There’s nothing quite like looking around your classroom mid-lesson and wondering, “Are they learning, or am I just talking?” In this episode, we’re talking about student engagement and how guided notes can keep students thinking during instruction. We break down five steps for creating guided notes that encourage students to make connections and show what they understand, plus ways to use those notes for study guides, retrieval practice, warm-ups, and exit tickets. The goal isn’t simply to keep kids busy. It’s to create meaningful opportunities for students to think and stay engaged while you teach!

Prefer to read? Grab the episode transcript and resources in the show notes here: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/podcast/guided-notes/

Resources:

• Order our book: Structure and Spark
• Halloween Resources
• Victoria Magazine
• Join The Teacher Approved Club
• Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow
• Shop our teacher-approved resources
• Join our Teacher Approved Facebook group
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Leave a comment or rating on Spotify

Related Episodes to Enjoy:

• Episode 161. How to Get Students Actively Engaged: 5 Teacher Approved Techniques
• Episode 165. Keeping Students Engaged All Year Long, No Matter the Season
• Episode 35. 5 Ways to Increase Student Engagement – Our Secret Weapon for Teachers
• Episode 33. Class Party Success – Our 7 Step Class Party Planning Checklist
• Episode 34. Plan the Perfect Halloween Class Party With 7 Easy Steps
• Episode 96. How to Plan an Amazing 2nd Grade Class Halloween Party

Mentioned in this episode:

Join the Teacher Approved Club, where members get seasonal morning work pages for grades K–5 this month to add fall and holiday fun without throwing off their routines: https://secondstorywindow.net/club

This is episode 289 of Teacher Approved.

You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping

educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story

Window, where we give research-based and

teacher-approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and

more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources

from each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to

the show.

Hey there! Thanks for joining us today. In today's

episode, we're talking about how to keep students thinking while

you're teaching, and we've got a tip to keep the end of October

from sneaking up on you.

But first, let's start with a try it tomorrow, where we

share a quick win that you can try in your classroom right

away. Emily, what is our suggestion for this week?

Okay, this week put a sticky note on your desk or

somewhere else private with the name of the student that you

feel like you've connected with the least so far this school

year, and then make time to have a quick conversation with that

kid. Because it can be so easy to overlook the kids who don't

ask you for anything, but the quiet kids need some attention

too.

And then next week you can write down a different name,

and before long, you will have gotten to most of your class

without ever having to schedule anything big.

Yes, it's so easy to do. If you like this idea or

anything else we share here on the podcast, would you do us a

favor and share this episode with a teacher friend?

Well, here is a not quite hypothetical situation for you.

You have carefully planned your lesson. All of those materials

are prepped. You are giving the lesson your all, and then you

look around the room, and some students are listening. Some

have completely zoned out. There's the one kid that is

asking to go to the bathroom for the third time since lunch, and

you're standing there rethinking your whole life and wondering,

are they learning, or am I just talking?

Oh, so relatable, and I'm willing to put money on the fact

that you have been there too. Maybe it's even something you

encounter daily. So, what is a busy teacher to do? Well, that's

what we're going to talk about today.

But before we get into that, let's focus on the why.

Why does any of this matter? And to do that, we need to think

about engagement. And our teacher-approved definition of

engagement is the degree to which students are positively

involved and willingly participating in what is

happening in class. And to get that definition, I had to pull

our book off of my shelf and look at the definition. That was

kind of a fun little moment. I never thought I would have that

experience. But going back to the example, I think we would

all agree that the level of engagement in that example

lesson was pretty low.

Yeah, and that really matters not just because low

engagement means decreased learning, which obviously that's

important, but also because of what it increases. When students

are disengaged, they will come up with something to do. They're

not going to just sit there quietly.

And you know the odds are that the activity they invent is

probably going to look something like pestering a neighbor or

stabbing an eraser with a pencil or something even more

distracting. So, keeping students engaged really just

makes everyone's life easier. Now that might mean adding more

cooperative learning, or it could be adding more games. I

love to teach with games, but what do you do mid instruction?

This is where active student response comes in.

Yeah, and if you go back to episode 161, we shared five

techniques for giving students opportunities to respond mid

lesson. So you can check that out if you want more details.

But today we have got a sixth technique, which is very hard to

say. Sixth technique, and that is guided notes.

Yes, and this is a new one for us. This is something we

came across when we were writing our book, and the research on it

looks really promising. So we're bringing it here to you to talk

about, even though this is not something we are experts on.

No, but it seems so important we just couldn't let

it slide.

Right.

So when you hear guided notes, you might picture a high

school lecture and a worksheet full of blanks to fill in, which

is fair because that's probably where most of us have seen this.

But that is just one version of guided notes.

And that is not the version that you would use if

you're teaching kindergarten or first grade. Guided notes are

teacher-prepared materials that give students some of the

structure and some of the important information, and then

leaves intentional spaces for students to record, predict, and

explain.

So you know you could give students one of those

fill-in-the-blank pages, but there really are so many more

possibilities. Guided notes can involve writing headings,

diagrams, definitions, sentence starters, and way more. So you

are providing the framework. Students are contributing the

thinking.

And that last part is what makes guided notes so

useful. It's not that they give children something to do during

a lesson; it's that they get the kids thinking.

And I'm sure that most of us have handed out something

the three branches of government are the blank, blank,

and blank branches. You know, and that's fine, but a kid can

fill it in without having to think about anything at all,

really.

Especially if you're pausing the lesson and telling

them exactly what to write. Now compare that to a page that

opens with a question like this: Your town is deciding whether to

build a new park. Who should get a say in that decision, and why?

Students can then write down their opinion first before you

teach anything.

And then you go through your lesson and you teach about

the three branches, and they can fill in those details as they

go. And at the end, they go back to their original opinion. What

would you change now, and what would you keep?

Either way, kids are writing, but the second version

pushes them to think about what they know about government. How

is the mayor like the president? Who has the power to do what?

What role do citizens play in the decision?

There is a real difference between students

doing something and students thinking about something. A kid

can be very busy and learn very little.

And if we swing back to the management side of this, a

student who has nothing to do right this second is a student

looking for something to do. So let's give them a job. When

everyone has something in front of them that frequently needs

their attention, they're more likely to learn and less likely

to tip back in their chairs.

I hate that. Ah, it drives me nuts.

All four on the floor.

Oh wait, should it be six on the floor? Doesn't rhyme

though.

It's true. All four on the floor sounds better, but

yeah, technically, I guess it would be six unless your

students are so little their feet don't reach the floor. But

then they probably couldn't bring back, right?

Oh yeah.

Sorry for that little rabbit trail.

Detour. Well, as we mentioned, fill-in-the-blank

notes are one form of guided notes. But if you want to move

past that, where do you even start?

Well, you're in luck because we've boiled it down to

plan, give, pause, respond, and apply. And don't

worry, we're going to explain them all in detail.

So first up is plan. Start by asking yourself what

students could do to demonstrate understanding. Maybe you want

them to predict or explain something, or maybe you you

really do want them to fill in some blanks.

And that's fine as long as the action is demonstrating

real understanding. If students can predict what goes in the

blank, they get so busy scanning for the next word that they tune

out everything in between.

And when that happens, you've basically just turned

your lesson into a scavenger hunt. So avoid that, and then

consider the second step in creating guided notes, and that

is to give. Tell us about this one, Emily.

This is where you give students a framework so they

aren't staring down a blank piece of paper. That might mean

providing relevant headings, a diagram with the labels missing,

or a blank table to fill in. But whatever you give students needs

to be tailored to their abilities.

So for lower grades, we are barely going to call these

notes. Students can draw what they noticed or add simple

labels to a diagram. The guided part of guided notes means

providing the right scaffolding. So for the young ones, try to

limit writing to just one-word responses.

That's not because we're anti-writing, but it's because a

seven-year-old who is listening, deciding what matters, spelling

it, and forming the letters is doing four hard things at the

same time, and that is just too much to manage.

No, something's got to give there. So maybe for a

lesson on seeds, the page asks, What do seeds need to grow? And

then there are pictures of possible answers like sun,

water, a taco, a T-shirt, etc. And students circle the correct

answers as you talk about them during the lesson.

And at the end, you could even circle back and have a

discussion about why plants don't need tacos.

Oh, poor plants! I just had tacos for dinner. The little

plants don't know what they're missing out on.

I know it's so sad for them, but plants often do make

good tacos themselves. So maybe that's a consolation.

No, I bet it's not. Circling pictures is a low

enough entry point that even kindergarteners can manage it.

But as kids get more capable, they need a different kind of

framework.

Right. If you're teaching character change to fourth

graders, you might give three sentence starters. At the

beginning of the story, Maya blank. An important event was

blank. After that event, Maya blank. The structure does the

organizing so students can put their energy into learning the

content.

And then after you've made your note-taking page, the

third step is to pause. Build stopping places into your lesson

where you quit talking and you prompt the students to do

something.

This step is easy to plan and hard to do. If you're on a

roll and it's going well, stopping mid-lesson feels like

losing momentum. But if you teach for 12 minutes straight

and then hand out a page, that page isn't part of the lesson

anymore. It's an assignment.

So if this feels awkward or frustrating, remind yourself

that the pause doesn't have to be long. A minute, or really

even like 30 seconds is plenty because with guided notes,

students are responsible for just one answer at a time and

not the full page.

And if you're not sure where the pauses go, look at

your lesson plan for the places where you'd normally check for

understanding, and then you can stick them in there.

Now you are giving your class a quick way to demonstrate

their understanding, which helps you know if they are ready to

move on or if they need more explanation.

Okay, once you've paused the lesson, the fourth step is

respond. This is where the students do all their writing,

drawing, labeling, circling, choosing, or solving.

And don't worry that the drawing might be undercutting

the learning. Research shows that drawing a response, like

drawing a picture to define a vocabulary word actually creates

deeper understanding, so you're really winning in multiple ways

with that one.

And finally, the fifth step is apply. Before the lesson

ends, give students one chance to use what they learned. Maybe

they need to solve a problem, defend an opinion, list some

examples, or write a summary sentence. You're looking for

something to close the loop on the learning.

One of my favorite apply activities with my second

graders was having students write how they would explain the

concept to a first grader. Because to a second grader,

first graders are, they're just little babies, tiny beings. Yes,

on a totally different planet. So that prompt gave them the

chance to feel like an expert, but my goal with it was to

really force them to think about the topic and break it down to

the simplest pieces.

Yeah, and bonus, this doubles as your exit ticket, so

you've got an assessment built right into the lesson.

And that is the whole recipe for guided notes: plan,

give, pause, respond, and apply.

And then do one more thing: keep these notes in

circulation. You know how it usually goes: students finish

the page, it goes in a folder, and nobody ever looks at it

again.

But there really is so much more you can get out of

this page. It can be a study guide. Use it for retrieval

practice. You know we love that, so you can let partners quiz

each other with their notes pages, or turn it into another

exit ticket, or even tomorrow's warm up.

You already did the work of building it. You may as well

get more than one day out of it. So the next time you're standing

at the front of the room wondering whether anybody is

with you, you won't have to guess. You can look down at 24

pages and see the learning right there.

And if our content is resonating with you, would you

take a second and give us a five-star rating in your podcast

player? Ratings and reviews are one way that new listeners find

us, so really every rating and review is a huge help to us.

Now for our teacher-approved tip of the

week, where we share an actionable tip to help you

elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week's

teacher-approved tip is get your Halloween plan settled now. Help

us out with it, Heidi.

Well, we are officially into October, which means if

your class celebrates Halloween, the party is closer than it

feels. And party planning has a way of turning into an emergency

around the 28th. So this week, if you have not heard from your

room parent yet, reach out. Just casually ask if they need help

with anything, and that will give you a good idea whether

anything is being planned.

Yeah, because the last thing that you want is to find

out three days before that everybody assumed that somebody

else had it handled, which is just the worst. And I have to

say, if I was back in the classroom, I would just decide

what the activities are going to be myself, and then I would just

ask parents to man those stations. So, if that's

something you could get away with, you might want to consider

that option.

Yeah, that is how I did my class parties. Partly, it

started because I didn't have a lot of involved parents in the

school population when I started, but then as it grew on,

I realized that parents don't have a ton of experience

planning group activities for kids, and it was just easier for

me to plan something because I knew it would keep everybody

engaged full time, and it wouldn't be 25 kids watching one

kid eat a donut off a string and all of the chaos that came with

that.

Oh yes, I've seen it all, and I see it way more now as the

room parent than I actually saw as the teacher. I'm seeing way

more like, oh no, what are you guys thinking, the teacher

should have given better guidelines.

And if you want some help planning and running a low

stress, low mess, low chaos class party, we can definitely

help you out. We've put all of our best tips in episodes 33,

34, and 96, and those are even specifically about Halloween. So

you really are covered with those.

And you can check out our shop for some Halloween helpers.

We've got festive breaks, a differentiated Halloween review

packet that's super fun. There's a my pet ghost activity, writing

activity that's super popular, and some other fun book

activities and more.

And if you want even more festive sparkle, we've got a fun

resource for teacher approved club members. This month we're

giving members four morning work pages: one for Halloween, one

for fall, one for Christmas and one for winter.

We've got pages for grades K through five, and the

nice thing is the pages follow our familiar morning work

layout. So if kids are already used to using morning work each

day, these pages give you a way to have a little seasonal fun

without derailing your structure.

If you are already a Teacher Approved Club member,

you can find these pages in the tools section, and if you're not

a member, what are you waiting for?

Yeah, each month we give you a new resource not available

anywhere else, a bonus podcast episode just for you, and

credits to use in our store. You can find the link to sign up for

the Teacher Approved Club in the show notes.

Okay, to wrap up the show, we are sharing what we're

giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your

extra credit?

Well, I feel bad doing this because we have talked

about this particular extra credit many, many times. But I'm

doing it anyway because I love it so much. I'm giving extra

credit to The Traitors. It is back for a new season.

It's so good, though.

Alan is more fabulous than ever. And this season is

quote unquote normies, but really a lot of them are like

internet, I recognize several of them from Instagram. Yes, some

of them are people I don't know, but I mean I don't think they're

technically really normies. But so far it's been fun. I think

there's pros and cons to a celebrity season versus a

normal, but they also just announced the celebrity cast

that's going to be coming out I think early 2027, so all The

Traitors content, just put it in my veins.

It's such a fun show. I normally prefer the celebrity

seasons because I feel so bad when someone who's like, oh

yeah, we're we would use this money for an adoption because we

have infertility, and then they're like immediately voted

out, and you're like, no. But knowing that these people are

like influencers on Instagram, it takes some of the sting out.

Where you're like, okay, they'll be fine.

Yes, this is so good. So if you haven't watched it, start

with the current season because you really don't need the past

seasons. You don't need to watch them in order. And I feel like

if you watch it live, it's so much more fun because other

people are talking about it. So go ahead and keep up with it

with the new season. So I think to start, they're doing like two

episodes a week for a few weeks, and then going to one per week,

so you can definitely still get caught up and join us on our

Traitors journey. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

I know I say this every week, but my extra credit is

such a pivot, and it really is. So my extra credit goes to

Victoria Magazine. Their website says it's a women's lifestyle

magazine created for all those who love heritage linens,

charming homes, gracious gardens, traveling the world,

and all that is beautiful in life. Pretty far from The

Traitors.

Hey, that they have heritage linens in that castle.

That castle would fit right in here. I bet this castle

I bet so.

It's been around forever. Well, the magazine and the

has been featured in the Victoria Magazine.

castle. But, so basically, it's if you have ever wanted to walk

around in the world of Anne of Green Gables or Outlander or

anything with beautiful sets and costumes, you might enjoy

Victoria. So this was my favorite magazine when I was a

teenager.

This is just giving such a picture of who you are.

Like I just would go to my friends' rooms, and they

would have like Kirk Cameron on the walls, torn out of Tiger

Beat or whatever. And I was at home drooling over the bathroom

fixtures in this fancy house that I would never visit, but

beautiful sink and it explains too much, I think,

Yeah, all of your lore is uncovered.

Yeah. So, as a grown up, I have not subscribed. I just

followed their Instagram account because the pictures are just so

dreamy and elegant. But a targeted ad got me with a good

deal. I think it was less than $30 for a year, so I subscribed,

and it really is lovely. It's got interesting articles, and it

also just looks really nice laying out on a table.

That's so funny. I'm glad you can enjoy the magazine from

your youth. I do remember looking at many of Victoria

Magazine because you had it laying around.

I saved them, I saved them.

I know.

I'm really sad I don't have them now because there's

things I want to reference.

Yeah. Well, I hope you're keeping these ones.

No, I think I gave them to mom so she could junk

journal.

Oh no.

Oh well.

Well, that is it for today's episode. This week, try

preparing guided notes for just one lesson, and see how it

boosts your students' engagement and learning.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm Heidi.

And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow

or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an

episode. You can connect with us and other teachers in the

Teacher Approved Facebook group.

We'll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Bye.